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Yesterday, I finally made time to go to the range to sight in my new Ruger American Rimfire Compact in .22lr with the Dead Air 'Mask' suppressor. I've had the rifle since the last week of December but haven't spent any time with it until now. Deer season ends tomorrow but the next four weeks is the remaining portion of small game season. The new hunting lease was a disappointment as far as deer but it is a wonderful habitat for squirrels.
The Ruger American Rimfire is a bolt action that utilizes the same magazines as the popular Ruger 10/22. The rifle comes with a 10-round for a flush fit, but you could use extended higher capacity mags if you desire. The synthetic stock comes with different comb heights to use depending on if you use a scope of the adjustable iron sights. The compact version has a shorter length of pull and shorter, threaded barrel. I wanted both because it will be better for training the great grandkids how to shoot and keeps the overall length reasonable when the 6-inch suppressor is attached.
I purchased the rifle by ordering online through Academy Sports. The process was simple and the rifle arrived at my local store in less than a week. Shipping was free but of course I had to pay retail sales tax. However, there was no FFL fee so this was much less expensive than ordering from Gun Broker and having it shipped to my gunsmith (he charges a $25 fee and I would have had to pay shipping).
Initially, I set up a target at 25 yards to sight in the iron sights before mounting the scope. The point of impact was too low and to the left. To my disappointment, I'd left my tools at home and didn't have a good way to drift the rear sight in it's dovetail. So, I decided to leave it alone and mounted the scope. I chose the rather inexpensive Simmons .22Mag scope 3x9x32. I've had good luck in the past with Simmons scopes on rimfires and air rifles so thought I'd try it on this one. The rifle's receiver is machined to take rimfire rings but is also drilled and tapped for adding a scope base. I just used the rings that came with the scope, mounting them directly on the receiver
Below is a picture of the subsonic ammo I used. I wanted to sight in using subsonic in order to take full advantage of the suppressor. There was no noticeable first round pop with the Mask and it was surprisingly quiet. The report may even be quieter than that of my Beeman air rifle! I was shooting off sandbags from a bench and am pleasantly pleased with the great factory trigger and the smooth, short bolt throw. The tang safety is another thing I like. However, it can not be placed back into 'safe' until the spent case is ejected.
Moving the target out to 50 yards, I was getting about 1-inch groups with the CCI sub-sonic which is pretty good. But the ELEY sub-sonic produced groups varying from 5/8 to 3/4-inch. So, I'll be hunting with the ELEY. The CCI Quiet was a total disappointment. Though noticeably quieter, the group size exploded to 4.5 inches. I'm wondering if perhaps it was unstable and hope it wasn't striking the internal baffles of the suppressor. Through the scope, I could even see the bullets going downrange, they were so slow!
As a test, I finished the day with a few rounds of CCI Mini-Mag hollow-points. Those are what I use in my Winchester 74 to good effect on squirrels. The accuracy was about 1-inch for 10 shots at 50 yards. But of course there was the sonic crack even though the suppressor kept the muzzle blast well below hearing safe.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the Ruger American Rimfire and highly recommend it. It's especially a good option if you want to use a suppressor and already have 10/22 mags.
2018_02_08 Tested Ammo r - Copy.jpg
The Ruger American Rimfire is a bolt action that utilizes the same magazines as the popular Ruger 10/22. The rifle comes with a 10-round for a flush fit, but you could use extended higher capacity mags if you desire. The synthetic stock comes with different comb heights to use depending on if you use a scope of the adjustable iron sights. The compact version has a shorter length of pull and shorter, threaded barrel. I wanted both because it will be better for training the great grandkids how to shoot and keeps the overall length reasonable when the 6-inch suppressor is attached.
I purchased the rifle by ordering online through Academy Sports. The process was simple and the rifle arrived at my local store in less than a week. Shipping was free but of course I had to pay retail sales tax. However, there was no FFL fee so this was much less expensive than ordering from Gun Broker and having it shipped to my gunsmith (he charges a $25 fee and I would have had to pay shipping).
Initially, I set up a target at 25 yards to sight in the iron sights before mounting the scope. The point of impact was too low and to the left. To my disappointment, I'd left my tools at home and didn't have a good way to drift the rear sight in it's dovetail. So, I decided to leave it alone and mounted the scope. I chose the rather inexpensive Simmons .22Mag scope 3x9x32. I've had good luck in the past with Simmons scopes on rimfires and air rifles so thought I'd try it on this one. The rifle's receiver is machined to take rimfire rings but is also drilled and tapped for adding a scope base. I just used the rings that came with the scope, mounting them directly on the receiver
Below is a picture of the subsonic ammo I used. I wanted to sight in using subsonic in order to take full advantage of the suppressor. There was no noticeable first round pop with the Mask and it was surprisingly quiet. The report may even be quieter than that of my Beeman air rifle! I was shooting off sandbags from a bench and am pleasantly pleased with the great factory trigger and the smooth, short bolt throw. The tang safety is another thing I like. However, it can not be placed back into 'safe' until the spent case is ejected.
Moving the target out to 50 yards, I was getting about 1-inch groups with the CCI sub-sonic which is pretty good. But the ELEY sub-sonic produced groups varying from 5/8 to 3/4-inch. So, I'll be hunting with the ELEY. The CCI Quiet was a total disappointment. Though noticeably quieter, the group size exploded to 4.5 inches. I'm wondering if perhaps it was unstable and hope it wasn't striking the internal baffles of the suppressor. Through the scope, I could even see the bullets going downrange, they were so slow!
As a test, I finished the day with a few rounds of CCI Mini-Mag hollow-points. Those are what I use in my Winchester 74 to good effect on squirrels. The accuracy was about 1-inch for 10 shots at 50 yards. But of course there was the sonic crack even though the suppressor kept the muzzle blast well below hearing safe.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the Ruger American Rimfire and highly recommend it. It's especially a good option if you want to use a suppressor and already have 10/22 mags.
2018_02_08 Tested Ammo r - Copy.jpg
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